


Back To School: A Short Story

by RaymondMichael



Category: Back To School - Fandom
Genre: ADPW Squad, Adventure, Back to School, Comedy, Friendship, Horror, Light Horror, Nonbinary Character, OC, Original Characters - Freeform, Short Story, Some Disturbing Scenes, Timber Cord High School, Timber Core High School, comedic horror, horror story, original concept
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 15:49:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20509541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaymondMichael/pseuds/RaymondMichael
Summary: A group of friends have made a club at their school in order to keep their dying friendship alive. However, one meeting will send them into an adventure that will bring them together and show them how big their school really is....I've spent a lot of time on this story because it was my first 'series' (except it'll just be one story) that I felt genuine and unfading motivation for. I hope you enjoy it, because I spent time and such on this to make it the best!





	Back To School: A Short Story

It was Sophomore year at Timber Core High School and only three months into the school year. However, while most students were pleased and happy with how the year was going, there were many who were unhappy. They couldn’t undo the damage that the previous year and past few months had left them with, but they kept hoping for the best. The group we see now is going to find out what exactly is so wrong with their school, because it isn’t just the rude teachers who are the problem; the problem is something more sinister than they could ever imagine…

3:20 in the school’s library, the last remaining students of the day had made their ways to the assorted clubs that their school had. A new club was having its third meeting today, though it wasn’t completely as it seemed. It was named the ‘TCHS Reading & Writing Club’ but the members weren’t planning on sticking to what the title entailed. They only made the club to see each other after school because they rarely had classes as a group. When they were a full group along with a few other students that had drifted to other social circles, years ago in middle school, they had fun and stuck together because their school was small. Now, in a large school with more than one teacher for each subject, they split apart despite their best efforts to stay tightly together. Now, they were still sticking with their most desperate measure by far- making a school club to hang out in. They had gathered on this afternoon, thinking it would just be a fun and uneventful hangout, but they were soon to realize that they ended up with more than they bargained for when one of them, a young fellow named Derek, began the meeting.

“Alright fellas,” Derek said in a bad British accent. “What is the news for today?”

“School sucks,” answered one of his friends, a Greaser-looking guy named Wyatt. 

“Yet we are still in it because we made this club,” another friend chimed in, an art student named Pierre. “do you think they’ll ever catch on that we aren’t talking about literature or reading stuff?”

“Our lives are zhe literature, mein Freunde!” Derek exclaimed in another bad accent, this time it was Germany that he was making a mockery of.

“That’s your only excuse, I take it,” Pierre replied.

“Yes…” Derek paused for a second. “But this meeting is more important than reading or writing, because I have been theorizing for awhile and I have finally reached a conclusion! Though it is probably going to sound crazy.”

The fourth friend and member, who hadn’t spoken up until now, was Ally. She was a quiet girl and the smartest person in the school to the group’s knowledge. 

“Bring it on buckaroo!” She exclaimed quietly and with a big smile.

“I love your energy!” Derek replied quickly and then turned to the group. “Alright, so basically… I think the school is cursed.”

Pierre and Wyatt’s expressions immediately turned from humorous curiosity to sour and distasteful. 

“Dude, are you genuinely being serious now? We are here, we could be talking about anything else but this but no- you’re making this conversation turn into a ghost haunting the school or whatever!” Wyatt yelled at Derek.

“Okay, first, it’s about the school being cursed, not haunted. Second, I have evidence,” Derek replied, somehow more serious than he had ever tried to be in his life.

“Derek, I hate to tell you this but… that is positively ridiculous, even by my standards.” Pierre crossed their arms. 

“Hey! I have evidence so I didn’t just come in with this claim and have nothing to back it up.” Derek was standing as if that would make him look taller or make his point stick. “But you have to be ready to listen to me and take it somewhat seriously.”

Pierre sighed and uncrossed their arms, laying them on the table and propping themselves up instead. They looked at Wyatt and then back to Derek, who’s head was tilted as he awaited an answer.  
“Fine, but Wyatt and I are still opposed to this,” they said.

“And just because you have evidence doesn’t mean it’ll be good evidence.” Wyatt sneered at him. “So please, go on.”

“I’m on your side, Derek,” Ally replied. “even if it sounds ridiculous, I’ll be here for you no matter what.”

Derek smiled at his friends; his hands were clasped together. He lowered them as he sat back down.

“Okay, here we go: remember our middle school? Nothing bad really happened there, not to almost all of us anyways. The only bad things that ended up happening to us were the fault of another human-person or ourselves. However, when we got here- BAM! Bad things are comin’ straight at us like bats outta Hell!” 

“Do you have any examples? Or are you just making up bullsh-“ Pierre interrupted Derek but then was interrupted by him. 

“I actually have several!” Derek exclaimed back before Pierre could finish his sentence. “Our first example is… Me.”

“Oh my God.” Wyatt dropped his face to the table.

“So, y’know how we have backpacks and the like? We must bring those to school, they’re the most important part of it, I’d say. Well, during the first month or so I never forgot mine- as you should- but then September comes around and all of a sudden: I’ve forgotten my backpack at home, I’ve forgotten my lunchbox in Geometry, I’ve forgotten my folder in lunch. You see it, right?” Derek paused, looking at his friends before continuing. “I am constantly forgetting stuff when I’ve never even had that issue! I’m not sure how exactly it’s possible, but it is happening, and I don’t enjoy it!”

“You’ve literally forgotten your stuff so much that they’ve had to give you an extra everything in every class so that you don’t lose anything.” Wyatt lifted his head from his arms just to make that remark.

“In a nice world, that would exist. Unfortunately, we do not live in a nice world,” Derek replied. 

“That’s a wonderful story, Derek. I give it 10/10, but don’t you think that your forgetfulness is caused by… I don’t know, yourself?” Pierre seemed incredibly disinterested and their face showed it well. 

“Listen to all the stories first, Pierre,” Ally chimed in. “just because the first one wasn’t very convincing doesn’t mean that the others won’t be. Maybe you’ll believe afterwards, you don’t know.”

“Alright, continue.”

“This next piece of evidence is actually about our dear artist Pierre,” Derek stated. 

Pierre nearly interrupted their friend but decided against it. They sat back and listened, awaiting the ‘evidence’.

“Now, Pierre-ot,” (Derek not only did bad voice impressions but also bad puns, and because Pierre’s name was similar to something called a Pierrot, Derek took that opportunity and ran with it) “how many days a week would you say that you end up late to a class?”

“Class? More like classes,” Pierre scoffed. “I would say about 2-3 days a week. I don’t know why but I end up late- even when I leave early.”

“You were even late to this meeting.” Ally laughed at her friend’s misfortune.

“It was only by five minutes!” Pierre tried to defend themself.

“Now, now children, don’t fight.” Derek interrupted the two’s short-lived argument. “Look, Pierre is always late to class even when they leave early. How would that be possible exactly? Could time be bending to screw your life up? Quite possibly.”

“That violates some scientific laws I think,” Ally replied. 

“Which ones exactly?” Wyatt asked the small girl.

“Why would I remember?” She shrugged. 

“I think that this is pretty good evidence, wouldn’t you agree Pierre-ot?” Derek smirked at them.

“Die.” Pierre replied in a low tone.

“I’ll put it on my schedule, anyways, here is another piece of evidence.” Derek faced his friends. “Ally, my good lady, how’s the year been going for you?”

“Absolutely rough! Terrible and horrible too!” She faced him. “Anytime we’re given a big assignment like a test or project and I spend a lot of time on it, something bad happens and I get a bad grade. On tests, I swear that the answers I put will change because it’s always easy questions that I’ll somehow get wrong! It’s tanking my grade but no matter what, it doesn’t stop.”

“Interesting…” Derek responded. “We could most definitely prove this one, though your claim is believable as are you. I do not doubt you as you’re the smartest gal in the school!”

“Please promise me that you will never say the word gal again unless you have to for your plays.” Wyatt cringed at him and his weird but creative use of the English Language. 

“I have no bedtime and I do what I want, Wyatt!” Derek exclaimed back to his friend in a joking tone. 

“Whatever, I’m done with this!” Wyatt growled and got up. “I’m done with this cursed school weirdness and all your stupid claims!”

“Wyatt come on,” Derek pleaded. “It’ll be worth your while, I promise.”

“Nope, I’m done. Goodbye.” 

Wyatt began walking to the library’s exit, past the shelves of books. As he walked past them, a book tumbled from its place and fell in front of him. It was a picture book of flowers along with growing information, something the Environmental Science kids would love. He picked it up and stomped back. 

“I can’t believe you, Derek!” He yelled. 

“Ah, so you’ve returned- wait, why are you holding a book?” Derek went from pleased and smug to confused in an instant.

“Seriously, dude? I was thinking you were better than pranks or whatever cause you were never the one to enjoy them, but now I’m just annoyed. I feel like you really want to get beat up for some reason.” Wyatt glared at him.

“Wyatt, I have no idea what you mean at all,” Derek was genuinely confused but Wyatt didn’t buy it at all. “is the book a metaphor or something? Because I don’t get it at all.”

“It fell while I was leaving, right in front of me!” Wyatt slammed his fist on the table. “Are you telling me that you didn’t do something to make it do that? You didn’t predict somewhere in your disturbed head that this was how this meeting was gonna go? Because I feel like you’re just doing this to make me stay.” 

“If you actually think that I’m smart enough to set up a trap or something like that, you are definitely overestimating my intelligence, mi amigo. I don’t even know how to set up a bear trap.”

“I… I-uh...” Wyatt wasn’t angry anymore, now he was as, if not more than, confused as Derek was. “I just… Whatever…”

He sat back down, looking away from everybody.

“Sorry…” He mumbles, trying to be quiet, but everyone can hear it. 

“It’s alright, old sport! Now, my next piece of evidence actually focuses on you.” Derek beamed and Wyatt would have felt better, only he felt more guilty because of how easily his friend could bounce back from it all. “Would you like to do the honors?”

“If it’s what I think you’re going to talk about, then I’ll try,” he straightened himself up and began. “I know how to climb stairs, first of all. It’s an easy thing to do. The only problem is that I’ve fallen down ‘em a lot here.”

“That’s a normal thing, you’re just clumsy.” Pierre chimed in. 

“I am not.” Wyatt growled at them. “Even if I was clumsy, I don’t understand how you can get cuts from falling down the stairs.”

Everyone went silent. Wyatt rolled his sleeve up and stuck his arm in the middle of the table. There was a white scar on his tan skin in the shape of a ‘w’. He rolled his sleeve back down and everyone remained quiet for a while.

“That was… pretty big,” Pierre finally broke the silence. 

“I got it from falling,” Wyatt replied. “if the falling was just clumsiness, then I wouldn’t have that and the other ones that I haven’t even shown.”

“You have more?” Ally inquired.

“Ally, not now.” Pierre gave her a glance and she settled down. 

“I think that this all just comes together to prove my case.” Derek finally spoke again. “Pierre, what do you think?”

“I’m very inclined to believe, but if this is all just fake then I’m going to stay on the non-believer side of it all.” They responded, face set in a neutral expression as it seemed to usually be. “If there is another way to prove your theory, go ahead and try.”

“We could explore the school.” Ally smiled at them.

“How? We would get in a lot of trouble.” 

“We shall find a way. I assure you all that, fellow cryptids and creatures!” Derek hopped up from his seat. “Now, meeting over!” 

They all make their way to leave, going in the same direction that Wyatt would’ve gone if he’d actually left. They make their way past the shelves of books, Wyatt not bothering to return the one that fell in front of him. Instead of being able to exit peacefully and return home with ease, books begin flying from the shelves and attacking them all. Luckily the shelves weren’t high enough to hit them in the face, so they didn’t get any of that damage. Ally screamed and tried to run somewhere but couldn’t find anywhere to hide. 

“What’s going on?” Pierre yelled at Derek.

“Why would I know?” He panicked and began to scramble for something to cover himself. 

“Get behind a table you idiot!” Wyatt screamed at Derek and he followed him as did everyone else. 

Wyatt grabbed a table and flipped it so that it would cover them from the barrage of books. They emerge from behind it and Wyatt flips the table upright after the attack ends.

“What the Hell was that?” Wyatt asks Derek.

“Once again, why would I know the answer to that?” He replies. 

“If you didn’t do it-“ Pierre begins.

“I DIDN’T!” 

“Then I believe you wholeheartedly.” 

“Alright, fine, that’s great.” Derek is sweating slightly and seems shaken. 

“We need to leave. Right now.” Wyatt orders.

“We need to pick up the books first!” Ally protests. “We’ll get in trouble and then we won’t be trusted at all! That means no more club for us and no more lunch without the principal by you for Wyatt!”

“Hey!” He’s about to yell back but has no defense as to why they shouldn’t pick up the books. “Fine, we’ll pick them up and get out of here. Quickly.”

They pick up the books and arrange them on the shelves as best as they can, they stay silent through the entire process. They only talk once they leave the library.

“Guys, I feel like what just happened definitely makes my whole theory seem really true. I didn’t plan for that to happen, I just was gonna tell you guys the theory and evidence and we were gonna laugh it off.” Derek still looked shaken up. “I’m gonna go ahead and say it now: this school is definitely cursed.”

“Derek, I know that your theory is most definitely true and all and I’m now genuinely kind of believing in it,” Pierre sighed. “but when you say stuff like ‘the school is cursed’ I cannot take that or you seriously. I already can barely take you seriously to begin with, but with you saying nonsense like that you become less serious.”

“ I know how it sounds, but I feel like that whole… event in there sells it. The school is haunted, cursed, whatever. It’s something and I don’t think it’s good.” Derek fidgeted with a keychain on his backpack before speaking again. “Well, see you all tomorrow.” 

They all said their goodbyes and left the school. They get picked up by their respective family members except for Ally, who is walking home as she usually does. They feel a sort of excitement for tomorrow but also unease at what could lay in wait for them, if anything does. They have no choice but to go to school though, and so they arrive to their homes and prepare themselves for the next day. 

…

The next day, they’re all pretty quiet. At lunch, Derek sits with Wyatt and few other kids that they know- Tobias, Kai, and Blaire. They knew Kai and Tobias from back in elementary and middle school, so highschool was a little bit like a reunion for friends that only had a small amount of chemistry. Meanwhile, Blaire was someone that they had just met that year. She was very loud and energetic, most likely because she was one of the top athletes in the school, and they enjoyed her company as she brought some light to the table. So far, Wyatt had been silently eating and Derek would’ve tried to make conversation if he knew what to say. After about 15 minutes of awkward silence, he finally decides to try and lighten the mood. He could only think to question the most obvious thing that was happening: Pierre wasn’t at lunch yet. 

“Where’s Pierre?” He asked Wyatt as calmly as he could.

“They’re probably dead!” Wyatt slammed his fist down on the table, startling everyone. “After what happened yesterday, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

“What do you mean ‘dead’?” Derek was once again confused at Wyatt’s sudden anger. “The school couldn’t kill them, I don’t think that even if it is cursed and all that, it wouldn’t have the power to kill ‘em.”

“I’m not saying that the school killed them, Derek.” Wyatt paused and glared at him; he was trembling slightly.

“They wouldn’t, we know that they wouldn’t.” Derek smiled lightly at Wyatt and attempted to bring comedy into the situation. “I’m sure that they’re just late, roight me ol’ chap?”

Wyatt looked down and it seemed like he was at his breaking point, Derek was about to try and console him, but it probably wouldn’t have worked. 

“They better be okay…” Wyatt laid his head on his arms, though he was still facing Derek. “And sh-shut up…”

“Okay…” Derek replied quietly. He looked away from Wyatt and mouthed a ‘sorry’ to the other residents of the table, they didn’t know what was going on and both Derek and Wyatt didn’t want them to know. It was better off that way. 

They sat in silence, Wyatt trembling slightly while trying to keep tears from spilling out and Derek in an awkward limbo of not knowing what to say but also wanting to make some sort of conversation to keep the mood up. It wasn’t long before Blaire ran off from them with some other sports friends to discuss something and Tobias and Kai slid down the table to leave the two alone. Suddenly, they heard the sound of the cafeteria doors opening and Derek looked up to see Pierre running towards them. They were shaken and looked like they were crying; their panic was incredibly obvious to the two sitting at the table as Wyatt lifted his head. 

“Pierre!” They both yelled for their friend. 

“Where were you? Are you okay?” They both questioned their tall friend as they collapsed at the table. 

“The hallways!” They sobbed. “They just kept going and going and I thought I’d never see anything but those damned hallways!”

They wailed and cried, most of the other students eating turned around and looked at them, but after a few seconds they continued with what they were doing. 

“What?” Derek inquired. “I don’t understand.”

“It was trying to stop me!” They panted and attempted to wipe their face. “The hallways kept going… It’s the school… It didn’t want me to get here!”

Wyatt was silent, listening to his friend until now. He turned to Derek, rage boiling inside of him. 

“You did this!” He yelled at Derek. “You had to bring up the stupid theory yesterday and now we’re gonna die because of you!”

Derek’s face went pale and he looked like he was about to cry. 

“Its… It’s not his fault… Wyatt…” Pierre protested. “It’s not his fault…”

“It is.” Wyatt scowled at Derek; his face flushed. “Whatever you summoned by talking about the school being cursed is now trying to get us and will probably kill us. Are you happy now?”

“It’s not my fault Wyatt,” Derek replied weakly. “you do this so much and all that’s happening because of it is that we’re being pushed apart. I know that you don’t mean any of this, I know it.”

“I MEAN IT!” He yelled, louder than he’d been before. It was a surprise that nobody turned around to see what the fuss was. 

“Wyatt…” Pierre chimed in, lifting their head off of the table and wiping their face off with their hands. “It’s not his fault, stop getting angry over it.”

Wyatt growled at them. 

“Whatever!” He dropped his head into his arms and laid them on the table, refusing to look at his friends. 

Derek turned to Pierre; his face was still pale while Pierre’s was reddish with tearstains down their cheeks.

“What happened? Why were you late?” Derek questioned as Pierre straightened themself and calmed their breathing. 

“I-I was walking but then the hallway expanded, and everybody was ahead of me. I tried to run to catch up with someone, but everyone who was close kept getting farther and farther away,” Pierre replied. “The walls looked like they were dancing, and the floors were wiggling like worms. I don’t know how but they were.”

Derek was quiet as Pierre took in a deep breath.

“I don’t want to leave; I don’t want to be alone,” They continued. “I just don’t want to have to see it all again…”

“I can walk you to class, we have it on the same floor.” Derek put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “It wants you to seem crazy, but I know that you aren’t.”

“Thank you, thank you so much.” They hugged their friend as they continued muttering. Tears ran down their face, and they were not born from fear or panic, but from happiness.  
Derek turned to Wyatt after the hug ended. 

“Wyatt, do you wanna help me walk Pierre to class?” He asked. 

Wyatt lifted his head, still angry but somehow less than before. 

“Fine, I will,” He replied. “I’m doing it for them, though, not for you.”

“At least you’re doing it.” Derek smiled as the lunch bell rang.

Wyatt stayed behind for a little bit, making up an excuse to the others who were at the table and saw everything. They bought it without a second thought and went on their way as Wyatt caught up to Derek and Pierre. The group made their way down the hallway and up the stairs, making small conversation as they did. 

“Are the walls dancing for you guys?” Pierre asked.

“Nope, not at all.” They both replied. “Are they dancing for you?”

“No, I think that we’re safe… For now, at least.”

“What’s good is that we’re safe, ain’t it partner?” Derek replied in yet another badly done accent. 

“How are you so happy?” Pierre asked in an amused tone.

“I’m not happy, just funny.” Derek replied and they kept walking and laughing. 

Soon enough, Pierre went off to their class and Derek to his. Wyatt finally made his way to his class and sat down. He took some notes for awhile before feeling a sort of unrest. He needed to get out of the classroom and somewhere else, it seemed claustrophobic suddenly and he hurriedly went out to the bathroom. He made his way to the nearest bathroom as his eyes darted around, suddenly he was strangely very aware of his surroundings. He hurried into the bathroom; the door closing behind him somehow sounded quieter than all the times he’d heard it shut before. He looked in the mirror and exhaled deeply. 

“They’re going crazy, hallways can’t dance.” He said to himself as he examined his face in the mirror. “I am not crazy.”

He turned the sink on and began to splash water on his face, hoping to feel relief but not getting any. He still felt on edge and his face dripped slightly and he looked at the sink. He then noticed that the water was changing- going from clear to grey and opaque to then black. As the water kept coming out, now black and most certainly not drinkable, he could see small pieces, or chunks, of something coming out with it. Whatever it was, the pieces were small and oddly shaped as well as pale white. The sink then began to fill up with water as if it was clogged and though the water was only rising slowly, it was somehow already filling half of the sink. Wyatt then got the urge to feel it and stuck his fingers into the water. The black liquid encased his fingers and he couldn’t even see the bottom of the sink anymore. He stuck his hand further down and felt something soft and bumpy. He gripped it as best he could and pulled it out. It was a slightly larger chunk of whatever was coming out of the sink with the water. It smelled horrible, the water did too, and he examined it. As he looked at it, he noticed that it had no definite shape. It had a color to it but whatever it had been was now pale and lifeless. Its smell was the worst part of it all. It smelled like the rottenest and most diseased meat that had thawed out in a broken freezer from Hell- and it was the smell of the water and things that were filling the sink he was standing by. The water kept getting higher and higher and it was about to start pouring out of the sink. As Wyatt held the pale chunk, something in his mind clicked and he threw it into the coal-colored water as he realized what exactly it was. It was rotten flesh. As soon as he made the realization, the water began pouring over the sink and onto the floor. He ran into one of the stalls to avoid it and climbed onto the toilet. As he did, the other faucets turned on by themselves and began pouring out the rotten water into the sinks. They overflowed quickly and the water kept flowing and flowing. The smell got stronger and stronger as Wyatt attempted to climb up the wall and get on top of the bathroom stall, but he could only make it so far. He began to gag from the terrible smell, which was not only the stink of rotten flesh but also the scent of cheap cleaning chemicals and bodily fluids, and the water kept rising higher and higher. The water was almost reaching the bowl of the toilet and Wyatt was tearing up and gagging to the point of nearly vomiting. As he attempted to climb upwards, his foot slipped on the wall box for toilet paper and he plummeted down-  
Down into the rotten, dirty, disgusting water.  
The liquid soaked into his pants and his couldn’t escape the horrid smell now because it was all around him. He couldn’t see into the water at all, it was only black with the small, pale chunks floating by. He nearly screamed out in terror, but could only manage a frightened gag, when a pale and lifeless arm brushed against his leg. He kicked it away as good as he could, being ankle-deep in death water and all, and gagged. He closed his eyes tight and tried to pull himself upwards on the wall with his arms, but it was too late for that. He slid down the wall and into the water and began to sob and try to cry for help, but to no avail. His pants were now fully soaked with the horrid smelling water and his shirt was soaking it up as well. As he looked around, he saw bigger and bigger pieces of pale flesh- another arm, a foot, something that seemed to be an ear. He thought he would die until he heard the faucets stop running. Then, as soon as it had all began, the water began to drain away into the floor and took the body parts with it. He felt nauseous and when the water was all gone, he collapsed onto the floor and sobbed out weakly for help. His eyes closed and remained closed tight until he heard the door open. They shot open and he stumbled to his knees, arms out in a defensive stance.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” He yelled at the boy that had opened the door. It was a confused student from his class. 

“Wyatt, please calm down,” the student spoke calmly as if he had to console someone like this before. “it’s me, Ben. I came to check on you, you’ve been in here for nearly all of class.”

“PLEASE HE-lp me…” Wyatt was still yelling, but his voice drained out as he realized that there wasn’t a trace of what had happened to him at all. 

He got up and followed Ben out of the bathroom as they walked down the hallway. They were nearly back to the classroom when the bell rang. They both hurried, grabbed their bags, and went off on their separate ways. Wyatt found Derek in the hallway after awhile and ran to him. 

“Derek!” He yelled before catching up to his friend. 

“Oh, howdy partner.” Derek said happily. 

“Shut up,” He began. “look, I… I saw something and it felt real, but it wasn’t. I need to talk to you and everyone else about it, so I’ll do it at the meeting tonight.”

“Okay, dude, you have my concern and all but,” Derek replied. “there isn’t a meeting tonight.”

“There is now, buddy,” Wyatt stated. “you also should hurry, you’re gonna be late to class.”

“OH SHNIKES!” Derek yelled before running off. “BYE!”

Derek ran to his final class of the day, hurriedly climbing the stairs to the third floor. He gets there before the bell rings and composes himself before entering. When he enters, part of him expects the room to be empty, he’s unsure why exactly he felt that something like that would happen but ignores it for now. Everyone is in their seats already and the class begins. He sits through it until the final bell rings. He makes his way down the stairs and to the ground floor. He walks down the hallway to the library and his mind begins to drift.  
‘We shouldn’t be having another meeting.’ He thinks to himself. ‘It’s one meeting every week, not one right after the other.’

He keeps on walking and doesn’t even notice that he’s already walked past the library. 

‘What if they’re lying because of what happened yesterday?’ His mind is buzzing with thoughts and accusations- distracting him. ‘I think Wyatt hates me, maybe he’s only saying it’s a meeting to do something? He probably would lie out of anger again; he’s done it before…’  
He snaps back to reality and realizes that he’s past the library, near the Marine Biology classrooms. Tanks lined the walls and there was one giant pool in the center; it had a glass exterior and even pool floaties in it. 

‘Why would fish need pool floaties?’ He scoffs to himself, trying to distract himself from the weird feeling in his gut with a joke. 

Suddenly, he’s overcome with a feeling- an urge- and makes his way to the door of the room. His hand is reaching out for the handle, going to open it, but he stops himself. He realizes that he can’t hear the sound of the air pumps or machinery in the room and the urge gets stronger. He has to go in. He doesn’t know why; he just has to. In the moment, his hand is no longer his own and it throws the door open and he jumps in. He lands on the floor from the force of it and the door shuts behind him. As he looks at it, the door and wall meld together and become one. Now, there was no door anymore. It looked like someone just painted a door on the wall. His eyes widened and he jumped up and ran to the ‘door’. He hit his fists against it, but they only succeeded in sticking to the wall like it was made of slime or glue. It was like the walls were made of sticky ice and they were melting. He was able to get away and stumbled farther into the room, bumping into a table that held a tank. He looked at it and saw that the water was boiling and bubbling. He snapped his head around and looked at all the walls of the room. The tanks on the tables near them all were bubbling and boiling, and some were even starting to crack and melt from the heat. The smell of dead fish was starting to pollute the room and Derek gagged slightly from it. He looked at the pool in the center of the room and saw that it was also boiling, like it was left on a giant burner. The scientific tools in the room were melting as well as the furniture. 

“HELP!” Derek screamed, though he was certain nobody would hear him. “PLEASE! OH GOD, SOMEONE HELP ME!” 

The temperature of the room kept rising and he could feel his face dripping with sweat. Everything kept getting hotter and he felt his energy start to drain away; it felt like he was being cooked alive and he wanted to escape so badly. He began to yell and scream- he would’ve cried but he was already sweating all of his water out. In a moment of pure despair and desperation, he made his way to the boiling pool in the middle of room. The floaties had popped and the plastic they were made of had melted into the hot pool water. He leaned over the side of the pool and began to lower his head; he needed an escape from this hellish nightmare and this was the only way. As his light-colored hair touched the boiling water, steam puffed up and into his face. He continued lowering his head until his forehead touched the water.

It was cold.

He yanked his head up as the temperature was now as it had been before. Everything was normal- no boiling water, no dead fish smell, no melting objects. The door was back, no longer painted on the wall, and he flung it open and ran to the library. His face was still sweating furiously, and the top of his head was wet with the water from the pool. He made it to the library at the same time as Pierre, who was concerned about why exactly their friend was sweating and panicky. They entered together and saw Wyatt and Ally already sitting at the table. 

“What happened to you?” Wyatt asked when he saw Derek.

“The Marine Bio room was melting!” Derek panted in response. 

“I’m gonna need more of an explanation than that.” Wyatt leaned back in his chair.

“What more of an explanation can I give?” Derek questioned him. “It was melting and hot and the water was boiling!”

“Why exactly were you in the Marine Biology classroom?” Ally inquired.

“I don’t know.” Derek was shaking as he sat down at the table. “Everything was boiling and melting and when I went to stick my head in the water it-“

“Woah, hold up!” Pierre interrupted him. “Why were you going to stick your head into boiling water? That is one thing you are never supposed to do!”

“I wanted it to end!” Derek replied. “If you boil your head, you die.”

“NO, THE HELL YOU DON’T!” Pierre yelled. “All that would do is give you horrible burn marks. Do you want to look like a blonde, rip-off Freddy Krueger?”

“Well, jeez, Pierre, sorry-“ Derek responded to the hypothetical question sarcastically. “-anyways, when I went to stick my head in the water it was cold. It was just the normal temperature of the water in there. Then, when I looked up, everything was back to normal.”

“I think that’s called a hallucination,” Ally chimed in. “are you guys taking some sort of weird drugs? Because I haven’t seen any of this stuff.”

“You probably will see something,” Pierre replied to her. “when you least expect it.”

“Well then I’ll always expect it,” 

“I think that’s literally impossible, but okay.” Pierre sighed and pulled their legs up onto their seat, now sitting crisscross on the chair. 

“If nothing bad has happened to me yet, then it probably won’t be as bad as what’s happened to you all,” She said, surprisingly confident.

“You don’t even know what happened to me,” Wyatt replied.

“Well then you should tell us!” She went on excitedly.

“I will, I will!”

Wyatt went on to recount what happened in the bathroom, sparing some details that he couldn’t completely remember. The tale was enough to draw disgust and shock from the group. 

“I was sobbing on the floor and Ben found me,” Wyatt finished. “I don’t think he saw any of it.”

“I feel like we’re the only ones that the school cares about harming,” Pierre added. “I’m not sure why but it just seems that way.”

“Why don’t we just find a way to go to another school or something,” Derek said. 

“It’s not that easy, Derek,” Ally scolded him. “there’s lots of paperwork and stuff that you and your parents have to fill out and-“

“It was hypothetical,” he replied. 

“Alright, shut up you two,” Pierre began. “We need to figure this out because I don’t want to be tormented all year. What even is this thing that’s attacking us?”

“The school.” Derek replied, leaning back in his chair. 

“Great answer, but there’s clearly some sort of other force at work.” Pierre stated, clasping his hands together. “It is most likely nonhuman, from what we’ve seen so far.”

“Magic!” Ally gasped. 

“Maybe,” Derek replied. “it’s not too out there.”

“We just need to figure out what this thing is and get rid of it,” Pierre said.

Pierre glanced over at Derek, who was just staring at them. He stared at them for a solid minute, not even blinking, and smiling strangely until they questioned him and broke the silence. 

“Derek…” They said. “You good?”

“AHAHAhahaha!” He laughed crazily as if that counted as an answer. “You are such a fool, young one.”

“Okay, dude, if this is one of those stupid voice impression things that you do to try and be funny, it’s even unfunnier than what you’ve done before.” Wyatt said to him, crossing his arms. “We’re trying to be serious about this, the least you can do is act the part. You’re supposed to be good at acting”

“This isn’t meant to be funny, Wyatt,” He snapped at the other boy, who was taken aback by the sudden hostility. 

“Then why are you doing it?” Ally asked him. “Please, just calm down.”

“I’m not doing it! Whatever is inside of Derek is doing it!” He said, pointing at himself before collapsing onto the table in a fit of hysterical laughter. 

“What are you even talking about?” Pierre asked and began to panic.

“I guess that I’m going to have to spell it out for you, pitiful thing,” he began. “I’m. Not. Derek.”

“That literally does not make any sense!” Wyatt yelled in frustration.

“You need to look on the inside, then you’ll realize who I really am.”

“You better not be the school!” Pierre jumped up from their seat, staring at Derek. “If you’re somehow possessed by whatever is controlling this building, then I’ll ki- I’ll k….”

Their voice faded away; they couldn’t even bring themself to say it. 

“You’ll do what?” Whatever was possessing Derek asked them. “I couldn’t hear that last part, ‘twas just a stutter. Tell me, Pierre, what exactly are you going to do if I’m possessed? Hm? Please do go off on me, I would so greatly enjoy it.” 

Derek’s eyes were black, nothing but blackness. It was as if ink had been poured into them. He, or whatever was controlling his body now, was grinning widely as if it was enjoying the others panic immensely.

“Let him go!” Ally yelled and weakly attempted to slap at Derek. 

He grabbed her wrist and his voice got low and raspy. 

“Don’t attempt to stop me, harlot!” He screamed and pushed her wrist, and her as well, away from him. 

“What does that word even mean?” She yelled as she straightened herself up.

“You’re better off not knowing, to be honest,” Wyatt replied quickly.

“Let him go! What do you want from us?” Pierre screamed; their voice hoarse. “Just tell us what you want!”

“I don’t- I’m not going to!” The possessed Derek replied back.

“Who’s the one stuttering now a-“ Wyatt was about to hurl an insult but instead was cut off by Pierre yelling.

“Just tell us, for Christ’s sake!” They yelled as Derek began coughing.

He almost cried out ‘no’ but instead began choking and coughing. He was wheezing violently and gagging as well, clearly trying to breathe but finding very little air. Wyatt ran and grabbed a trash can, not knowing exactly why but feeling as though it would probably be useful. Derek grabbed it from him and began coughing and vomiting violently into the trash can. He continued to vomit for a minute or so and when he’s done, they see that it’s not vomit that he threw up, but instead it’s a weird black fluid with an oily consistency. He collapses onto the table, groaning and coughing. 

“What just happened?” Ally turned to Pierre.

“I-I don’t know…” 

“It’s called a possession and whatever force is controlling this school just did it to our friend. We are stopping this thing no matter what.” Wyatt piped up. 

“How?” Ally asked. “We don’t know where it is, so how would we know how to stop it?”

Pierre sighed, looking at Derek. He was pale, paler than he normally was, and his lips were stained blackish-grey. His eyes were tired and teary, and he groaned before closing them for a while. 

“Well…” Pierre looked up at Wyatt and Ally. “I guess we’ll just have to go on a little adventure, won’t we?”

“I’m in,” Wyatt replied. “I don’t want what just happened to Derek to happen to me.”

“I second that!” Ally said cheerfully, beaming with happiness and determination. 

Derek lifted his head slightly and smiled with his stained lips.

“I-I third that, gentlemen!” He coughs and continues, still in a British accent. “We’re gonna stop that ol’ beast!”

“At least you aren’t possessed anymore.” Pierre smiled at their friend. “Now, what’s the first order of business?"

“We need to find any and all hiding places in the school,” Wyatt responded. “we have to find out where this thing is staying.”

“Yes indeed, Wyatt my boy!” Derek replied once again. “We are only sophomores, so we won’t know every place in the school, but I know that we can find out where it is because we shall work together!”

“We need to find hiding spots,” Ally chimed in. “anywhere somebody could hide in without being found for God knows how long is suspicious.”

“We could just get Derek possessed again and get the demon to tell us its personal information,” Wyatt joked.

“Hey!” Derek scolded. “We don’t know if this thing is actually a demon.”

“Alright, look, whatever we do we need to do it as quickly as possible. I think that we can get some exploration in right now.” Pierre stated. 

“How though?” Ally inquired. “We’ll get caught and we won’t have an alibi at all.”

“It’s for a project,” Pierre replied. “writing and scenery. We have to describe different places in the school.”

They looked around at the group, everyone seemed content.

“Now, grab a pencil, some paper and a clipboard and let’s get to it!” 

They led the group out of the library and into the gym, note-taking materials in hand. The gym was very large and well-maintained; however, this didn’t mean that things couldn’t have been hidden there. The group looked around and pretended to scribble down notes as they searched. They found nothing of importance and left. The next location they visited was the theater, which had a lot of halls and rooms because of the backstage area and catwalk. There were many places that someone- or something- could hide in, but this doesn’t mean that there would be something there. Just because there is a good hiding spot doesn’t mean that someone will take it. Sometimes, there’s a better spot that is more inconspicuous than the ones before it. The school knows where to hide and how to be inconspicuous, that’s why nobody has found out about it- until now, of course. The theater would lead them down a similar path as the gym; they wouldn’t find anything too useful. Unlike the gym, however, one of them would find something much worse than a hiding spot. 

“Guys, I hate to say it but,” Derek said. “I don’t think it’s here.”

“Well, we have other floors and I’m sure that it’ll be on one of them.” Pierre responded, their search seeming slightly more frantic now.

Wyatt walked over to them.

“I couldn’t find anything either,” he said. “hey, where’s Ally?”

“Isn’t she with you?”

“Well, she’s clearly not.”

“Well then, where is she?”

“I don’t know!”

They began to quickly look around the theater for their lost friend, to no avail. They couldn’t find her at all, no matter where they looked. They soon began yelling for her but stopped when they realized that they may get noticed and kicked out, it is a theater so the sound travels quite easily. They continued searching while Ally was off somewhere else. She was about to finally experience something that would make them all alike in one way. This was a new encounter. She was in a hall of faint, yellow lights and couldn’t hear her friends cries or know that they were looking for her. All she could do was walk down the hallway until she finally came upon a room. 

It was a dark room with doorways on each side. The doorway behind her led to the yellow hallway that she had entered from. There was a red room in front of her, a blue room to the left, and a green room to the right. She decided on entering the red room first, as it was in front of her. She walked up to it and looked at it. There was a metal doorway with a glowing red sign above it that read ‘EXIT’. She inhaled deeply and opened the door. She was prepared for something horrible, but there wasn’t anything as bad as what she thought would’ve been in there. The room was just a bedroom, cloaked in red light. The furniture was fancy and clean; there was a bed that was draped with velvet curtains that hid the center of it, a dark oak desk with a quill in an ink bottle on it which was next to a piece of paper, and a velvet chair in one corner of the room by the bed. There were also a few paintings on the wall- a ballerina with a distorted face, a fruit bowl, and a lake at nighttime. Ally made her way to the desk, she wanted to see the paper. She looked over onto the desk and squinted to read the paper. The desk had no chair. As she looked at the paper, she saw that it read:

“Dear Alicia,  
Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away  
Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away  
Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away  
Go away Go away Go away Go away Go away  
Go away Go away Go away Go away  
Go away Go away Go away  
Go away Go away  
Go away  
We hate you dearly, please go away.

Sincerely, “

There was no name signed after the ‘sincerely’, this was most likely done on purpose. She was confused and backed away from the note and desk. She turned on her heel and left the red room.  
Next, she went to the blue room. The blue rooms entrance was a veil of shells, pearls, and rocks among other shiny things. She walked through the veil and noticed how nice this room was. The blue light shined nicely and made her feel very calm. She also noticed how cold the room was. She stepped forward and slipped slightly. She looked down and saw that the floor was made of ice, as if she were on a frozen lake. She also found that, looking around herself, there was no room; there was only a door with the shiny veil in a sea of cold, blue fog. There was really so much fog that she could barely see in front of herself. She continued to walk forward, carefully placing her feet to avoid slipping on the ice, until she heard a loud ‘thump!’ and she looked around desperately for the source of the noise. She heard another one and looked down. The thumping seemed to be coming from the ice. She squatted down to see closer and a hand rose into view from the murky waters below and hit the ice, making the ‘thump!’ sound that she had been hearing. She gasped and jumped up when the hand hit the ice again and it began to crack. She quickly began to walk and then attempted to run away as the thumping became louder and quicker. She heard the sound of the ice breaking as she nearly slipped and finally reached the veil. She slid through it and back into the hallway room.  
Now that she was back, she decided to finally go into the green room. The entrance to this room was a wooden door with paint chipping off and moss growing on it. There was also a number painted on, but the paint was so chipped that she couldn’t make out which number it was. She opened it, which was difficult as she had to push it very hard and entered the room. Green light was cast faintly on the room and she looked around it. It was a hospital room. It would’ve been normal, if not for the moss and plants growing from random areas and the blood stains and smears on the walls and floor. There were a few cabinets and a sink, which were disgusting. The sink had a large amount of green plants and other things growing from it and some of the cabinets seemed to be leaking something. She didn’t bother to look at them, it wouldn’t be useful. She also noticed a bed in the center of the back wall of the room. She walked over to it and saw something under its blanket. When she was close enough, she pulled the blanket back and it revealed a corpse. There wouldn’t have been anything wrong with what she saw because corpses look like humans, but this was different and there was something very wrong about this corpse. It didn’t smell like a corpse at all. There was no nauseating wave of the smell of decomposition when she lifted the blanket, instead there was just a strong scent of lemons or some other citrus fruit. There was also a problem with how the corpse looked. Its face wasn’t that of a normal human, it looked like it was a candle that was carved into the shape of human face but was melted and then it attempted to shape itself back into a human. Except that it failed horribly at that task. As she recoiled in disgust, its eyes popped open and looked at her. The eyes made the whole creature even worse. The eyes were bloodshot and horribly red. There was barely any whites around the iris, it was just red with maybe a little bit of white. The creature looked at her and smiled, its teeth were rotten, and it spoke to her. 

“Bri…ng…the-em… t-o…me…” 

Its mouth moved slowly, and its voice was raspy and nearly gone. It seemed like it struggled to even get the words out. The lemon smell was gone. It was just blood- blood and dead flesh and rotten teeth.

“Wh-y…a-are…you…he-re…?” It kept talking to her as she was silent. 

She sucked up her fear and spoke to it, nearly vomiting from the smell but carrying on, nonetheless.

“I don’t know,” she whispered to the thing. “why are you here?”

The corpse-thing paused at the sudden reversal of its own question and blood began pooling in its eyes. The blood spilled out over its face as it screamed and wailed. Ally couldn’t take it anymore and ran from the room, its screamed echoed throughout the room and into the hall as she ran into the yellow hall. The yellow light was now flashing rapidly and she felt like she was going to be sick. She kept on running until she saw something white. She got to it and jumped out from the hallway. She was in the backstage of the theater; the white thing that she saw was the Cyc. She looked behind her and saw the hallway that she was just in begin to close up and then, it was just another part of the wall. Her friends ran to her and helped her up. 

“Ally! Oh, thank God!” Derek yelled. “Where were you?”

She was panting and wheezing but tried her best to talk to them. 

“There- there was a hallway and I was in it and I saw a lot of stuff-“ she tried to tell them what she had seen: the note in the red room, the hand in the blue room, the corpse in the green room, and the flashing yellow hallway. 

“It’s okay,” Pierre told her calmly. “you aren’t there anymore and we’re gonna figure out where this thing is and get rid of it.”

“Please…” she panted. “Let’s-let’s just go…”

They made their way up to the second floor and found nothing but a crawlspace that led to an empty room. Why was it there? That’s a question for the school administrators to answer. When they made their way to the third floor, things finally got interesting. There were only a few classrooms that were actually used on the third floor, they were close to the staircases. All of the other classrooms were empty because they hadn’t found a use for them yet. As they searched the floor, Wyatt found something of interest.

“Guys! Come over here!” He yelled to the others. “I think I found where it’s hiding!”

The others rushed to the room he was in, one in the far back of the floor. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned for a while. As they entered, they saw what he was talking about- a hatch in the ceiling. 

“How are we gonna get to it?” Ally asked.

“I have an idea.” Pierre replied and ran out of the room. They came back with a chair in hand and placed it under the hatch. 

They climbed onto the chair as their friends watched and they opened the hatch. They lowered the ladder down from it and climbed off of the chair afterwards.

“Climb up,” they said to the others. “it looks like an attic.”

They each made their way to the place above. Wyatt went first, then Ally. Next came Pierre and Derek, though he ended up on the ladder for a few minutes because Pierre wouldn’t move. 

“Wow…” Ally whispered. “You guys need to see this!”

Wyatt sat stunned next to Ally as Pierre climbed to the top and stood there, Derek right behind him.

“What the f-“ Pierre was cut off by Derek.

“It’s beautiful!” He marveled. “How is it even possible though?”

The attic didn’t look like an attic, it looked like a ballroom. It was blue, white, and gold colored with fancy furniture and a curled staircase that probably led to a loft-like area. It could’ve made for a fourth floor if there wasn’t a nonhuman being living in it. The group marveled at it before Pierre finally let Derek up.

“Remember guys, this is probably all fake,” Ally stated. “it’s probably some sort of trick that it’s using against us.”

“It’s a hallucination!” Pierre exclaimed. “That’s why we see it for a certain amount of time but then it disappears when someone else interferes. This thing isn’t as strong as it wants us to think it is.”

“If these are hallucinations, then why do they feel so real?” Derek asked.

“Probably because this thing has the power to make them feel that real.” Pierre answered, standing up.

“Why would it be attacking us specifically?” Ally asked.

“Probably because Derek began to figure out its whole deal,” Wyatt began, stealing Pierre’s question-answering spotlight. “and it wanted us to not believe him, but by trying to make that happen it just got us to believe in it even more.”

“It is wonderful that my hypothesis was proven right and all,” Derek chimed in. “but if this thing is home then where exactly is it?”

They heard a sound and looked up to see someone descending the curved staircase.

“Congratulations!” A slightly deep but definitely not intimidating voice exclaimed. “Hello children, I see that you’ve made it! It’s always good to be early to the party.”

“Show yourself!” Pierre said, sounding like a police officer but for spirits.

“If I did then you all would have to die,” the voice responded smarmily. “of course, nobody would really care if you did, would they?”

“That’s a lie and you know it!” Pierre shouted at it.

“UGH! You humans always have to ruin my- and other creatures- fun,” it groaned quite dramatically. “you can’t kill me though; it just isn’t that simple.”

The creature finally finishes descending the staircase and steps into the light. Its skin is pure white, like paper, and looks like it has the same texture as drywall. It dons a dark blue and purple suit with a small patch on the right upper arm- the Timber Core High School logo- and shiny black tap shoes. Its hair is black and swept back like an oily serpent, though it doesn’t lay completely flat. Its eyes were dark, not completely black as they still had the whites, but dark enough that they looked to just be a giant pupil in a sea of grayish white- a different tone than its skin- with light grey underneath it all. It was tall and inhuman as it walked towards them. It could’ve passed for a human being, but there were small but noticeable details; its gloved fingers that seemed just a bit too long, its limbs and torso that were too gangley, and how its gait was more like something trying to imitate a humans walk than a human actually attempting to walk. It smiled, its teeth were sharp and pointed like a shark and it probably had more than the regular amount of them. It spoke with too much confidence and dramatic flair for Pierre’s liking, but the flair was respected by Derek.

“Welcome to Hell, dearies!” It announced once it was revealed to them.

“Oh, thank God!” Wyatt shouted like he’d just been saved from a perilous danger. 

“Excuse me?” It looked offended.

“Dude, I was expecting something actually scary!” He replied. “This just saved me from the psychological trauma that I thought I was gonna get.”

“I was definitely expecting something more… Mentally scarring, to say the least.” Pierre added on.

“I’m pretty easy to disturb and like, I’m not even that scared.” Ally scoffed and put her hands on her hips.

“I was waiting for this moment!” It shouted angrily. “I thought you would all be terrified and shaking- I spent time making this body fit my standards!”

“Whose body is it?” Derek asked.

“How would I know? I got it from the morgue.” It paused, then grinned. “Anyways, time to die!”

The walls of the ballroom began to crack and drift apart like pieces of ice on the Arctic Sea. Derek and Ally got separated from Wyatt and Pierre as the school-creature laughed manically at their misfortune. Suddenly, they are no longer in the ballroom. They’re in completely different places than they previously were. Derek and Ally are on large piece of a ship, floating in a cold ocean while Wyatt and Pierre are in a room with a hallway covered by glass behind them- though they can’t see it- and the walls, floor, and ceiling are changing rapidly as lights flash. The walls are changing colors, shapes, textures, anything. They see things from eyes to faces to geometric shapes and it’s all nauseating. They close their eyes and try and tune it all out. 

Meanwhile, Derek and Ally are still stuck on the piece of boat and have no clue as what they need to do to escape. Derek turns to Ally, his eyes black and his mouth stretched in a terrifying grin and speaks in the same creepy voice he did in the library. 

“You must find the portal, it’s your only escape. Have fun, I made this special for you two!” The words come from his mouth but it isn’t him saying it, whenever this happens it’s never him speaking. It may be his body- his hands and his voice- but it isn’t him.

His eyes revert back to how they normally are and he vomits the black, oily liquid into the ocean. He coughs and chokes before looking at Ally.

“What does it mean by door?” She asks.

“I don’t know,” he replies. “I think we may be stuck.”

“We can find a way out, we always do.” She says to him, tears coming to her eyes. She’s still determined to get this finished.

Suddenly, the water around them begins to bubble and steam rises. The temperature has increased, though the air is still icy cold. They desperately look for something, a door or an exit, something to free them. Then, they see it.

“The porthole!” Ally yells to Derek in excitement. “Open it up and we can jump through!”

“Are you sure it’ll work?” 

“It has to!”

They both use their hands to pry it open, it shows the ballroom on the other side. 

“Go in.” Ally motions for Derek to enter it.

“Gingers first, missy,” He jokes and she sticks her legs in. 

She enters it and slips through; he enters after her and they both end up back in the ballroom. The blue and white floors are still cracked in fragments and they end up on the same one as the school-creature is. It looks at them, angry.

“Oh, come on! You escaped?” It yells. “I shouldn’t have possessed him to give that hint! You should have been boiled alive!”

“You can’t boil me ‘cuz I’m not pasta, amigo!” Derek jokingly exclaims to it. 

He punches it in the face, leaving a crack like he just punched a porcelain doll. It recoils in pain and growls at him. 

“Woah!” Ally exclaims. “Where did that come from?”

“I just really wanted to punch him for all the Hell that we’ve been through!” Derek said, still exited.

“Where are Pierre and Wyatt?” Ally questioned the school-creature. 

“They’re probably DEAD for all I care!” It yelled at them. 

“Tell us where they are or I’ll shatter your face!” Derek threatened.

“Fine! They are in a realm parallel to yours.” It crossed its arms, like it was bored with making that statement, but then cheered up when it finished it. “Oh, and by ‘a realm parallel to yours’ I mean that they are experiencing major visual terror in the theater.”

Derek groaned like he was completely done with having to go all around the school but grabbed Ally and headed across the ballroom and down the ladder. They made their way down the stairs and Ally attempts a rail-slide but fails and almost falls down the stairs. Once they’re in the theater, Ally finds the yellow hallway that she had been in earlier and signals to Derek.

“They’re in here!” She shouts to him. “Don’t ask why I know, I just know.”

“Alright.”

“Stay close to me and don’t go anywhere alone.”

They made their way down the hallway, the flashing yellow lights gradually returned until they were in the center room. 

“I’ve been in all of these, so I think I know where they’d be.” She says and turns to Derek. “Derek?”

His eyes are dark once more and he smiles.

“Just because they are the same on the outside doesn’t mean that they’ve remained the same on the inside, girl.” He coughs and vomits the black fluid again after making the statement. “I really wish he’d stop doing that…”

“If they aren’t all the same as they were before, then we’re going in each one. One by one.” She says and looks at them all with dread. “We should try red first. I’m not sure why but it feels like it’s-“

“Calling to you?” He interrupts. 

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

They approach it, the door and sign are the same as before. She opens the door to see a long hallway with flashing lights and rapidly changing walls. Derek looks down as the images become more distorted and more disgusting. The shapes morphed into severed limbs with gore strewn about or stretched and screaming faces, and it was all plastered on the walls like a horrible wallpaper. Ally sighed and moved them along faster until they reached what appeared to be the end of the hall. It was a pane of glass that they could see Wyatt and Pierre on the other side of. They were hugging each other and trying to not look at the walls. Ally groaned as if she was dealing with an annoying little sibling instead of a disturbing tunnel that had trapped their friends and she spoke without even looking at Derek.

“Give me your sweater.” She ordered, sticking out her hand.

“Why?”

“Just give it to me,”

“Alright then,”

He removed his sweater and she wrapped it around her hand, which was clenched into a fist. She proceeded to punch the glass and break it all. Wyatt and Pierre looked up at the sudden noise and saw them. They ran to their friends and reunited. Ally dropped the sweater and Derek didn’t bother to pick it up, he had more at home. 

“How’d you know to break the glass?” Pierre asked Ally with wide eyes. “And how did you know to wrap something around your hand?”

“I saw it on TV once, I guess it just stuck with me.” She shrugged and led them down the hall.

“Thank you so much!” Wyatt cried out. “I thought I was gonna go crazy.”

“How’d you know where to find us?” Pierre asked.

“Derek threatened it and got your location.”

“You’re welcome.” He winked at them. 

“I’m so proud, you’re finally tough.” Pierre put an arm around Derek as they walked.

“I’ve always been tough, buddy,” He replied.

“Yeah, sure.” Pierre laughed and they all kept on walking until they made it out of the disturbing hallway and into the yellow hallway, which was only a slightly better shift of atmosphere. 

They made their way through the yellow hallway, and as they walked down it, distorted music began to play. It was like a hellish symphony playing right there for them to hear. They only realized that they needed to hurry when the walls began to slowly close in on them. They ran as fast as they could, one behind the other, until they reached the end of it and they all tumbled out. They were panting and shaking as they got up and the hallway disappeared. 

“Why?” Wyatt cried out. “Why us? What did we do to deserve all of this? It was just a stupid conspiracy theory and now… Now we’re probably gonna die!”

“Wyatt… It will be alright,” Pierre tried to comfort their friend. “but… we are the cause for this all.”

“That’s great,” Derek chimed in. “Time to be blamed for yet another thing that I probably didn’t do!”

“No!” Ally yelled at them. “We aren’t what caused this! It’s that over-dramatic school-demon-thing that caused all of this! It’s like it wanted to scare us but then went too far, so it tried to cover its tracks by going EVEN FARTHER!”

“Well, it doesn’t matter if it’s our fault or the school’s fault, we’re going to fix it one way or another.” Pierre crossed their arms. “Now, it’s time to get this done.”

They exited the theater and climbed the stairs to the third floor. They all went up the ladder and into the attic, where the school-creature was reclining in midair while reading a book- the gardening book from yesterday. 

“We’re back!” Pierre shouted at it. Their excitement didn’t feel natural, at least not coming from someone like them. 

“Oh, come on! You were supposed to be dead!” It shouted in annoyance, throwing its book somewhere in the ballroom. “Why must you make this so difficult?”

“Because we want a bargain.” Pierre stepped across the broken-up floor towards it. “If you’re willing to play fair.”

“Hm…” It pondered. “What kind of bargain exactly?”

“Uh, yeah. Pierre, we didn’t talk about this at all.” Wyatt spoke from behind them. 

“The bargain is that we’ll let you live, but you have to leave us alone.”

“Oh, seriously? I gain literally nothing from that!” It frowned at the offer.

“You’d gain a longer life than you would’ve had if we unleashed our rage onto you,” Wyatt added. “isn’t that something you’d gain?”

“That is not a plus in my book,” it responded. “do you have anything more to add? Or should I just get on with it and kill you already?”

“Fine, then,” Pierre sighed. “leave us alone and you get to live here and we’ll help you with almost anything you need.”

“So… You’ll tell me who I can torment?” It inquired.

“Yeah, sure, just stop giving us all the trouble.”

“I only tormented you for a few months-“ Its defense was very weak.

“It was a LONG few months!” Derek shouted.

“Alright, I accept your offer.” It and Pierre shook hands and it spoke again. “Give me someone who I can torment now before I get too bored though.” 

They all look at each other before Ally speaks up.

“Hera Danvil,” She said. “she’s a freshman and a terrible person.”

“Appearance, please?”

“A few inches shorter than Pierre and chubby, she’s like a pear shape. Her hair is dyed black and silver. She wears crop tops, boots, and lots of fishnets. Her clothes are usually pretty dark, desaturated, and grungy.” She paused for a second and looked at it. “You know what a grunge style looks like, right?”

“Yes, I’m old but not that old,” it answered her.

“How old are you?” Wyatt asked. 

“None of your business, child.” It replied, slightly hostile. “Now you can leave, I guess.”

“Okay.” Pierre paused for a bit as they made their way back to their friends. “Do you… Do you have a name?”

After asking it, they felt kind of ridiculous, but it responded with an actual answer. 

“Just call me Timber if you need to use a name.” It said.

“Alright, goodbye then.”

They left the attic, climbing down the ladder for (hopefully) the last time and shutting the attic after everyone was out. Pierre returned the chair to the room they got it from and everyone went back to the library. 

“Uh, Pierre…” Wyatt broke the silence. “Where are the clipboards and stuff that we had for taking notes?”

“They’re somewhere, probably in one of those hallucination room things,” They replied. “don’t bother with them.” 

They returned to the library and grabbed their things; Ally checked her phone while everyone got ready to leave.

“Wow!” She gasped. “It’s only 4:13, we’ve only been here for an hour.”

“Well, whatever kind of adventure we went on felt much longer than just an hour.” Wyatt replied. “Thank God it’s over.”

“Remember, gentlechildren,” Derek said in yet another weird voice. “the next meeting is next Thursday after school. Don’t be late, Tally-Ho!”

They all say their goodbyes and walked out of the library to wherever they needed to go. Ally and Derek walked home together because they couldn’t get a ride while Pierre and Wyatt got picked up. Once they made it home, they reflected on what happened while doing random activities- surprised at what they were able to accomplish in only one hour. Derek is secretly hoping for another adventure, he feels like it brought them together in a way that team sports just never could and he wants that feeling of unity back. It was happy and joyful and beautiful while it lasted. Pierre just hopes that the school year will be normal from now on. They know that there will be occasional drama, but it will be unimportant and won’t matter in the long run. Ally wants to get back to work and make something of the experience- whether it would be a book, essay, art piece, or another creation, she doesn’t want to keep it all to herself. As for Wyatt, he just wants to forget it all. The corpse flood in the bathroom, being trapped in a distorted room and running through a weird tunnel in theater as well as meeting the somewhat demonic creature that has a spiritual hold on the school are all things he would like to repress. 

In the end, the only ones who will suffer are those that provoke the school enough to gain its attention.


End file.
